


new word order

by funeralstrut



Category: Granblue Fantasy (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Cyberpunk, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-19
Updated: 2019-07-18
Packaged: 2020-05-14 11:38:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,178
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19272508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/funeralstrut/pseuds/funeralstrut
Summary: The cyberpunk AU literally no one asked for.--0. Djeeta doesn't really remember what they say about AI and cakes and lies, but the one thing she does know is that she trusts the AI living in her head completely. Lyria, on the other hand, isn't so sure what to make of all this fuzzy human hardware she's dealing with.1. Katalina Aryze doesn't want to bring children to war, but she may not have a say in the matter.





	1. a cake of undetermined value

Somehow, Djeeta can sense the unspoken wanting behind Lyria's silent pause in her head, even as the AI sharing her mind withdraws into her own end of their shared connection. 

Djeeta takes another bite of the shortcake. _Lyria?_ she tries.

_... Mm?_

_Did you want to try some too?_

Lyria responds with only a sense of amused resignation. _I don't have that kind of access to your senses and body. You know that._

_Yeah, I know,_ shrugs Djeeta. _But it wouldn't be that hard to set up._

This time, the conversational pause stretches so long that Djeeta briefly wonders if she should send a ping down their line. For Lyria to take this long thinking... she really must be hesitant, she thinks to herself. All that cutting-edge computational power of this next-generation AI, developed in god-knows-what secret Imperial lab in some nuclear bunker, whirring away to process a simple question. But then again humans spent all their time hesitating and going around in circles too, dancing around questions they were afraid to see answered, and that was after millions of years of evolution. If you thought about it that way, Lyria really wasn't so different from your average little girl, after all.

_Djeeta,_ comes a pained reply at last. _I've already asked so much of you. Giving me access to your body? You hosting me in your head like this is so much more than anyone could ever... And the way your brain has adapted to that now, I'm not sure we could ever separate—_

_You've told me all this already,_ Djeeta says gently. _I trust you, and I made my decision a long time ago._ She waves the piece of cake still on her fork around vaguely. _So, a bite?_

Gratefulness washes over her; a warmth Djeeta can feel in her own core, even as she knows it doesn't come from within herself. And then without fanfare, she begins to experience the odd sensation of her hands slowly manoeuvring around without her direction, as Lyria's clumsy direction first moves them this way, then that. The piece of cake manages, barely, to hold on as the fork holding it rises, but then—

_Oops,_ they both go at the same time. Frosting smears the side of Djeeta's cheek, and the cake piece falls unceremoniously to the ground. The sense of brief panic and embarrassment from Lyria hits harder than the cold sensation on her skin, and Djeeta finds herself laughing out loud for what seems like forever as Lyria's embarrassment slowly turns into a soft pouting. ”Sorry,” she says, wheezing too hard to continue out loud, _I wasn't laughing at you, I swear!_

_Humans take years to learn to do that! I don't think I'm doing so bad..._

Djeeta smiles broadly. _How about we try that again?_


	2. convergent

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Katalina Aryze doesn't want to bring children to war, but she may not have a say in the matter.

“Lyria’s alive.”

It isn’t a question, but Katalina answers anyway. “Yes.”

Djeeta frowns slightly. “I thought… that AIs were supposed to be semisentient at most. Lacking self-awareness on their own, but gaining it when synced to a human brain,” she recites, nearly word-for-word out of the Standard Ed texts. “But Lyria’s definitely alive on her own. I can feel it. If anything, _I’m_ the semisentient one, since I’d be brain dead if she shut down. How’s that possible?”

Katalina swirls the last of her drink, thinking about where to even begin.

“You’ve studied some of the basic theories, I’m assuming,” she finally says. “About how it’s not complexity alone that makes consciousness, although some believe that it might be a necessary condition.”

Djeeta nods.

“The key issue here,” continues Katalina, “is _will._ A ship’s nav can suggest new routes and even attempt to innovate original ways to manoeuvre the engines, but that doesn’t mean anything about its consciousness, because it’s ultimately acting to fulfill its original function, and has no desire to change that. We design AIs to have functions, and then we design them to derive utility from performing those functions. That’s… what an AI core _is,_ essentially—a very complicated _raison d’etre._ An AI _is_ because it _does._ ”

“Whereas… humans _think,_ therefore they are,” Djeeta slowly says. “Then again, we have biological drives…”

“But they’re not part of our higher consciousness. We’re not aware of them, and we definitely don’t think of ourselves as beings living only to eat, or reproduce.”

Comprehension begins to dawn in Djeeta’s eyes. Katalina nods approvingly, and continues.

“You’re quick on the uptake. A human brain, supplemented with AI, can be said to have become a new, but also sentient, being.” Pilots often reported identifying with the ships they synced with at Level III, after all, going so far as to say that they temporarily became part of something bigger than themselves. “But there’s supposed to be no way to create AI that’s sentient on its own, because there’s no way to create AI that doesn’t have a core. A purpose. Until now, it seems.”

Djeeta spaces out for a minute, and Katalina wonders what it must be like, interacting with Lyria on that level: a bond far deeper than her own Level I test syncs with Lyria under the constant scrutiny of the researchers back at the Imperial lab. Even limited to that shallow link, Lyria had appeared so full of life, and desire, and yes, will, that it had seemed ludicrous that they could have dismissed her as just another compilation of subroutines. She hated the feeling of that gentle light fading little by little every time they went on a mission together. Bloodshed was inevitable in the military, but Katalina had made the choice to participate. Lyria, on the other hand…

Katalina hadn’t been able to stand it. Which was why she took Lyria and fled.

How wonderful it is to truly get to know another, she thinks as she continues watching Djeeta’s face flitter through expressions in her half of the conversation.

(Vira’s smiling face flashes through Katalina’s mind briefly, but is swiftly dismissed.)

“Katalina,” Djeeta starts quietly. “How much have you heard of the rumours? That there might be other self-aware individual AIs?”

Katalina purses her lips. “I never used to pay attention to them, but now…”

“What if I told you I _know_ they exist?”

“Explain.”

“My father was an AI researcher. When I was young, he warned me. That he’d accidentally helped make computers that were alive, and he had to help them, because they were trapped. He… disappeared from my life soon after he said that, and now I think I know why.”

Katalina looks at Djeeta’s too-young face, and sighs internally. It’s the face of a child, barely out of mandatory education, who might very well lose her life before her first drink if she walks the path she’s hinting at.

“Lyria wants to help those AIs the same way you helped her. And I’m hoping to find clues about my father.” Djeeta holds a steely look in her eyes. “We’re both prepared to risk everything.”

For a moment, Katalina Aryze says nothing, but then she stands up with conviction.

“Then you’ll need to learn to fight.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this is exposition clumsily disguised as dialogue but throw me a bone here, it's scifi

**Author's Note:**

> god i haven't written fiction since before HIGH SCHOOL what am i doing (screams) anyway if i figure this writing thing out there might be more to come in this au


End file.
